Apple Slips As Android Gains In Australia

Google’s Android OS is still winning the marketshare war against Apple, Microsoft and Blackberry with a new report showing Google has 68pc of the Australian market.

The news comes from research company Kantor WorldPanel, which shows June 2014 marketshare for Android at 68pc, Apple at 25.5pc, Windows at 5.3pc, BlackBerry at 0.5pc and ‘other’ at 0.7pc.

This compares with Kantor’s June 2013 figures of Android at 63.4pc, Apple at 26.9pc, Windows at 6.7pc and, BlackBerry at 0.4pc and ‘other’ at 2.6pc.

Interestingly, Kantor’s press release for Apple’s Australian market share is at odds with its own fancy interactive marketshare indicator you can see here, with the press release stating 27.4pc marketshare in the 3 months ending to June 2013 as with the image below, yet the interactive app shows Apple’s June 2013 marketshare to have been a lower 26.9pc.

The discrepancy is likely due to the interactive graphic showing marketshare for the month of June 2013 alone, rather than the 3 months ending to June 2013 from its press release.

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Kantor’s June 2013 and June 2014 press release marketshare figures.

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Kantor’s other June 2013 and June 2014 figures.

This compares with Android’s June 2014 marketshare of 62pc in the US, 84.3pc in China, 60.6pc in the UK, 75.9pc in Italy, 84.3pc in Spain, 81.4pc in Germany, 71.4pc in France and 89pc in Brazil.

Smartphone marketshare figures have been the subject of much contention in the tech press given Apple usually announces the number of devices sold, while Android and other makers usually talk about devices shipped – which doesn’t mean it actually ever ends up in the hands of a paying customer.

There’s also much argument over why figures consistently state Apple users actually use their iPhones as pocket computers who buy more apps, use more apps and browse the web for information and buying decisions, when Android figures for similar use cases are always surprisingly much lower.

A plethora of cheap, underpowered and lowly featured Android smartphones available even in supermarkets has also helped Android boost its numbers tremendously, with accusations flying over Android users buying glorified “feature phones” that are primarily used for calls and texts, but little app usage or browsing.

This dichotomy is magnified when developer support and profits are examined, which consistently show iOS is the developer’s OS and moneymaker of choice, followed by everyone else.

So, while the world is clearly awash in Android phone marketshare, the real action, profits, anticipation and excitement is still Apple’s baby – endless Android activations each day still can’t keep Apple at bay!